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On Tuesday, it was announced that the New York Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association awarded New Rochelle, and master developer RDRXR - a teaming of Renaissance Downtowns and RXR Realty, who have busy in the city for nearly a year – earned the William H. Whyte Award, praising the “holistic, sustainable continuing development of Long Island Sound’s Queen City.”
Last year, the New Rochelle City Council unanimously voted to undergo a radical downtown, transit-oriented redevelopment centered on the Metro-North train station. Since being chosen as master developers, officials with RDRXR have hit the ground running, actively seeking public opinion as they mold the future of New Rochelle’s business district.
“On behalf of the New York Metro Chapter of the American Planning Association, I am pleased to advise you that the city and its development partner RDRXR have been chosen to receive the William H. Whyte Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify creativity and ingenuity in planning in the Metropolitan New York region,” the organization said in a letter to New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson.
“We received numerous nominations for this award and are pleased to let you know that you were selected as an exciting project aimed at achieving planning excellence.”
While pleased with the early praise of the project, Bramson warned locals that they are still in the very early stages of the redevelopment, which the American Planning Association also described as a “thoughtful zoning that looks to take advantage of economic and demographic trends.”
“We are still in the midst of the review and approval process for the downtown plan – not to mention the challenge of actually implementing the vision,” he noted. “So it may be a little premature to start patting ourselves on the back, but it’s gratifying to receive positive recognition from regional and national experts.”
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